


Beyond

by ShadowSelene (Shadowdianne)



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-31
Updated: 2019-01-31
Packaged: 2019-10-20 02:27:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,595
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17613713
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadowdianne/pseuds/ShadowSelene
Summary: Regina (the good Queen from S7) gets a tricky knight (Emma Swan, from alternate realm) to accompany her during her annual visit to one of her unified realm.Knight Emma doesn't hold Queen Regina in high regards. Yet.Regina is shocked at seeing another Emma but finds herself, intrigued by this knight.Asked by Essvari





	Beyond

**Author's Note:**

> This one was tricky to pull if I’m being honest Xd The reasons as of why -if some of you want to read my ravings about it- will be explained at the end so I don’t spoil the story myself. However, it was an interesting thing to write because of several reasons. One of them being that I think it’s no secret I adore writing these two in a fantasy setting.
> 
> Before I forget though; yes, this story is multichaptered. Hell must be freezing over lol. Fortunately for those that know I tend to be awful at writing long stories this one is already written. I’m merely buying myself some time between posting chapters. (I would still love some feedback though!)
> 
> Also, to Essvari; thank you for the prompt. I truly hope I managed to capture at least a fraction of what you had in mind. I’m eager to see your thoughts on my take of your very cool idea.
> 
> Enough with me: ON WITH THE STORY!

 

 

The Enchanted Forest extended beyond Regina’s eyes, the gray lighting product of a rain the night before not diminishing the greens from the trees that curved around the multiple structures that hinted castles and towns beyond the pool made out of concrete Storybrooke was. The brunette, however, wasn’t in Storybrooke but in the throne room from the castle that had transformed into the epicenter of the realms. Devoid of the decorations that had been present on the coronation, the throne room didn’t seem as impressive though, nor as filled with the glowing warmth created by the invited fairies. No, Regina thought before turning and focusing on the table in the middle of the room where maps waited for her, if it was up to her, she would be on her office, back at the town she could distinguish from the chamber.

Sadly, some of her meetings needed to be attended there: In a castle that, otherwise, she would have vacated by now. Massaging her temples, feeling the weight of the crown even if it wasn’t resting on her head, the brunette allowed herself a few seconds to close her eyes, channel her magic as the last memories of her just finished meeting echoed on her brain.

The details were unimportant; the fact that in a couple of weeks it would be her second anniversary since her coronation the only tidbit that made her grit her teeth. She, like she had done the year prior, had been invited to some of the realms. A show, her newly appointed advisors had told her, of good intentions.

She hadn’t forgotten the etiquette that had been implanted on her mind since she was nothing but a toddler and yet, with the carefully studied comes and goes of court made her itch sometimes, wish for some of the simplicity of forms and paper; files and order. The thought, as it always happened whenever she unearthed it, disappeared just as quickly but it lasted enough for her to hum and open her eyes, the buzzing of her magic just whirring beneath her eyelids, conferring everything around her a tint of purple that disappeared as she blinked a few times.

She wasn’t ungrateful, she chided herself, the same linear thoughts appearing just as quickly. She had been humbled, delighted, when Snow had put the crown on her. Yet, she considered momentarily, approaching the table and eyeing the route that had been decided for her, she sometimes longed to be the mayor of a small town.

A wish that would have made her snort if it wasn’t for the bone deep tiredness that felt on her. Focusing on the paper instead of the thoughts that seemed to be more and more repetitive with each passing week, she scanned the names while mentally linking them to the stories that had been known from on the world without magic Storybrooke had once belonged it.

And still did, in a way, if one knew what turn to take in a road that now branched multiple times into several entries of the Enchanted Forest.

Most of the places on her route were easily accessible by the use of magic. Some others, however, not so much. The fact that magic was not the same, nor worked the same, in those other realms difficulted a little the use of traveling, the use of the Enchanted Forest hidden trails a necessity rather than an option. But, despite having lived on the Enchanted Forest her whole young life, Regina didn’t know the many rabbit holes one could use to cross entire kingdoms in the matter of a few days. Some trails were only accessible to those who had already discovered their way through.

Which had been precisely the matter of discussion of the impromptu meeting. The one who had made her leave Storybrooke and her planned breakfast with Henry, Lucy and Ella.

Her musings were cut short, however, when a loud knocking sliced through them; the sound making her wince even if was only inwardly at the realization that there could be others wishing to see the Queen.

She didn’t have the chance to call for the one at the other side of the doors as they opened just as quickly, one of the servants, the ones Regina ad protested against to no avail, stepping inside, his face staring back at her in a mix of quiet anticipation and nerves.

“The knight from the Realm of the Untold Stories is here.” Regina frowned, somehow relishing on the sound of her heels against the floor as she approached him, one hand resting on top of the table. A reminder -just as the pantsuit she wore- that she wasn’t exactly on the Enchanted Forest anymore. Not as it had once been at least.

“Let them enter.”

-.-

If it wasn’t because Regina knew for a fact that Emma was in Storybrooke she would have probably approached the blonde woman that had stepped inside and asked her to stop the charade. However, that wasn’t the only way the woman that now stood in front of her was different from the Emma Regina knew was back at the town; doublet and sword included.

The differences were much much subtler, hidden in the way the woman addressed her with clear eyes, void of the tension that always seemed to cloud Emma’s own irises. Her shoulders, defined below the doublet, sat higher than her counterpart, her hands -and that was something Regina’s traitorous eyes looked into the quickest- didn’t have any ring on them.

“I believe I will be escorting you tomorrow.” Her voice rose, limpid, and that also was eerily similar and yet strictly different; an accent hidden beneath the vowels and consonants, a slight edge that rose where Emma’s usual pitch would have fallen. Yet, just like Emma, the way her jaw rested, tense, muscles and nerves cording, told Regina more than enough. After all, the blonde -or at least one- could very well have the power of knowing when she was lying but she had known the same as well once.

Once upon a time she had refused to come back to a Storybrooke that had felt more like a stagnant prison than a place to live. That, however, was something the knight, the woman in front of her hadn’t been a part of and, as such, she merely nodded to the woman’s words, her mind still racing at the fact Emma seemed to have another version of her herself.

She had believed, along with Gold at some point, that the lack of Emma’s doppelgangers was simply due to the fact that she was the savior. A title cursed enough for it to not be able to be bore by one person at a time. Aladdin’s had somehow disproved that theory but the fact that no one had appeared bearing Emma’s face had become the usual, despite the many jumps and realms they all had ended up fighting on. Seeing someone like her and yet so different made Regina’s mind reel, her mind drinking on the details like the red accents on the doublet she wore, on the way she still eyed her, expressionless and yet hotly enough for her to wonder if the woman in front of her didn’t like her.

A thought that made her smile crookedly for a moment before she caught herself.

“Sorry.” She offered, and she almost laughed at her own voice as she heard it rising through the walls around them both, her magic ruffling the papers on top of the table. It sounded meek, young, and she needed to refrain herself from her body to suppress the micro expressions she had grown accustomed to use in front of the blonde. Whenever those didn’t hurt her, that was. Something that didn’t seem possible these days with the extremely curated version the younger woman let shine through whenever Hook wasn’t near them. Or Henry. Both versions of him. “You reminded me…”

“Of the savior.” The blonde’s voice rose again and this time the brazenness of her answer made Regina arch a brow, curious. There had been a twitch there, just for a second, a smirk almost. Blonde locks bouncing, the woman tilted her head to the distant Storybrooke. “I’ve been told that already.”

It was a more candid statement this time but one forceful enough for Regina to frown ever so slightly. The woman certainly looked the same, but she didn’t behave, nor carried herself in the same way and that, in a way, made her wonder how different the woman could truly be.

Although, a voice whispered on the back of her mind, one that sometimes resurfaced on quiet nights in where she was unable to sleep, would be that horrible for this Emma to be different than the other? She shook the feeling away from her and smiled once again, the pull on her lips making her wince inwardly.

There were many things she had faced already; she could do with someone that was exactly the same as the woman that had been nothing but a shadow ever since she had returned, despite the warm smile that had lighted the room the day of the coronation. Despite the fact that she had ultimately become Hope’s godmother. Despite the fact that she kept on waking up in the middle of the night with just the faintest buzz of Emma’s magic calling for hers in a way she hadn’t felt ever since she had left Storybrooke, the memory of a sad smile and a portal closing seared on her brain.


End file.
